


Tuneless

by InsominiacArrest



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Music, Busking, F/F, Getting Together, Musicians, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 23:25:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11977296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsominiacArrest/pseuds/InsominiacArrest
Summary: Diana is a famous professional violinist, Akko is a street artist trying to become a pop star the hard way.Diana keeps finding herself following her tune down the street.





	Tuneless

**Author's Note:**

> thought this fandom could use more AUs!

She shouldn’t be interesting. Half the notes were off-key, the other half were almost rhythmless at points.

The guitar was obviously self-tuned and she seemed to come up with many of the lyrics on the spot.

She shouldn’t be interesting, she should just be sad.

Diana sat across from a fountain with five spikets and the image of a siren at the very top, her face split into something between joy and menace. The street mall was cobblestone, old and lined by cast iron lamp posts and only a couple paces away from Dianna's studio.

It was a middle-aged, a family sort of part of the city, old and dusty and plagued by mouths in the gutters and apparently, a few street performers now.

The ‘artist’ Akko had her wood guitar on her lap and a magician's hat on the ground in front of her, all only a few meters away from Diana’s lunch spot.

Next to Akko was one small white sign done in glitter gel and bright red marker: Akko, Superstar Chariot in training.

Diana was waiting for the bobbies to come by and take her to downtown Luna Nova city jail. She doubted she had a permit to play Rolling Girl in the middle of the sidewalk with no regard for actual lyrics.

She doubted she even lived in one of these apartments, Akko was beaming and strumming her instrument for a couple anyway.

“Hey there Delilah, what’s it like in New York city,” Akko, superstar chariot in training, was doing requests.

Diana should look away, Diana should really look away.

“But tonight you look so pretty.”  
  
Diana’s eyes were pressed against the image of a girl in ragged blue jeans and a plain orange shirt playing for change and couple LNC bills across from her. She didn’t know what to think.

Diana finishes her cucumber and cream cheese sandwich and sits there for an extra fifteen minutes. Akko played BTS, Johnny Cash, and then a jazzy version of Disney’s the Lion King ‘He Lives in You,’ she strummed her notes with no regard for genre and barely paused for breath.

Diana’s eyes soften and something tightens in her chest all at once. The girl never stopped beaming like she was going to play her way into the sun and bring springtime to the arctic.

She could see the calluses on her fingertips, Diana has to get up and turn around.

She had double strokes and drones to practice at her studio.

\----------

The next morning Diana gets two calls from her manager and two brief conversations with different concert halls and then one orchestra.

She tells her manager she was going to be away from the phone for the afternoon. Her mom might chastise her for half-lies but Diana didn’t know how to tell them that she couldn’t go to Carnegie Hall in March. Not right now.

She practices Beethoven from 8am to 12pm, until her head swims and she hopes she starts to _feel_ it again, the old movements, the old flow and spark the kept the notes coursing through her. She sighs by Ode to Joy and puts her Legecy violin in its case.

The leaves were falling outside in clumps, heavy wet red and orange lumps that crinkled and scattered to the ground. It seemed to fit her mood. she makes another cup of tea and puts on her boots to take a walk. They were always telling her to take walks to get out of this.

She strolls aimlessly down the narrow Luna Nova city streets and her eyes blur over. Her feet carry her to the same cobblestone strip mall.

“Maaamaaaa just killed a man,” Diana paused, faltering as the sun soaked street coming into view. She hadn’t paid attention to where her feet had taken her. “Mama, life had just begun.”  
  
Akko played Bohemian Rhapsody with abandon, “Nothing really matters.”

A crowd circled her and started to sway and clap along to this off-kilter bellowing of the performer.

Akko jumped up and down, spinning in circles and jamming like it was just her on a stage playing to ten thousand stadium-goers instead of eleven passing street pedestrians.

The crowd was singing along and gave a happy little echo to Akko’s incredibly loud voice, she gets on her knees and thrums like her fingers might fall off, “Any way the wind bloooows.”

The crowd claps at her with a few whoops.

“Thank you, thank you,” she gets up and bows deeply, Diana watched as the crowd deposited shiny coins and a variety of small bills into her hat and open case.

Diana can only stand there, staring numbly ahead as Akko runs around in circles and asks what the crowd thought, some nodded at her appreciatively and gave her another Luna Nova pound. But they all backed away and scattered to the stores in quick procession.

Akko wiped her brow and backed up to a low edge to sit down, she grinned down at her hat and counted it slowly.

  
“Ah,” she made a small sound and Diana shuffled back and forth.

 _She couldn’t really be satisfied with that, could she?_ Diana knit her brow together, that was barely enough for a new guitar string and the song itself was missing entire chunks.

She couldn’t be happy with that.  
  
Akko was singing something to herself again and Diana approaches slowly.

She clears her throat when she comes into range of her. Akko wiped her forehead again and then tilted her head up when she saw her.

Akko smiled, “ah, hello there! I’m Akko, the next Chariot rising. What can I do for you?” Diana frowned at the ground slightly, “did you have a request.”

Diana wiggled her toes and looked up, “you have good breath control.” She says sharply and Akko raises her eyebrows.

“What’s that?”  
  
“Good breath control,” she pushes her hair over her shoulder, “but you were an octave too high on the alto parts almost every single time.”  
  
Diana doesn’t know why she’s doing this.

Akko looks at her curiously, “are you,” she looked her up and down, then broke into a gigantic smile, “are you an artist too?”  
  
She seemed more excited than offended, Diana taps her own leg slowly, her fingers itching for a bowstring of her own at that moment. She could show her how to fret better too.

She turns on her heel, “I just thought you ought to know.”  
  
Akko gets up and approaches her, “do you play around here too?” She reached for her shoulder, “do you know Terrace Bob? He got me this spot.”  
  
Diana clenched her jaw, “I do classical. I don’t do...this.” She says shortly, “I have to go.”  
  
“I can do some classical,” Akko dove for her guitar. “I can do so much classical.”

Diana was about to politely decline and slip back into her dark cool studio for the rest of the afternoon, but Akko was already placing her fingers along the neck of the guitar.

A steady ‘Ode to Joy’ pours out and Akko hums along. Diana’s mouth fell open slightly, the notes circle around each other like colors being spun in a tye-dye machine. They were like little bubbles popping in the air instead of flowing streams and Diana closes her eyes.

A jaunty and amateurish ‘Ode to Joy’ surrounds her, she let’s go, the gusto of the young performer washes through her veins. Diana takes a deep deep breath.

She puts a hand up and opens her eyes up, “that’s the simplified version.” She states and Akko peers up at her. 

“Duh,” she goes to finish the song, “I’m gonna be a popstar! Not a classicsist, classicist? Anyway,” she puts her hand out, “I’m Atsuko Kagari. You can call me Akko!”

She was smiling again, Diana’s heart does a funny thing and she looks at her hand for a moment.

“Diana.” She finally says and shakes, “Diana Cavendish.”

She waits for the moment of recognition or awe to spread across her features. It doesn’t come.

“That’s a pretty name,” Akko lets her hand go and taps her chin, “I could make a song of it! I make up songs for people for three LNC pounds.” Akko nods at her case.

Diana shakes her head, “keep practicing.” She says quickly and turns around, “I’ll…I’ll be around.”  
  
“Okay,” Akko was searching her, “If you ever want to collaborate,” She waves as Diana hurries away, “I could get us a good spot with Terrace Bob.”

Diana purses her lips and runs all the way back to her place. She plays Ode to Joy for the rest of the day and far into dinner time, trying to play her way into the feeling she just had while standing in the nothing-street mall for just three minutes.

 

\------------

 

Diana told herself she wasn’t going back, she could find another spot to take her lunch.

Diana was suddenly not very good at keeping promises to herself.

Her aunt called her that morning and told her she better start taking in shows again or the papers were going to think she got knocked up and ran away from her good girl image to some crack house. Diana hung up halfway through but she gets the gist of it.

But Diana wasn’t playing, Diana was taking walks. She took long autumn strolls with her umbrella in her purse and a couple heavy coins in her pocket.

Akko was sitting on the familiar fountain with the grinning siren and a chipped nail job, she wasn’t playing this time though, she was eating a chocolate ice cream and leaning on her instrument with a distant look on her face.

The breeze tousles her hair softly and another leaf falls in between them on the boardwalk. Diana studies her for another long moment before shuffling over.

Akko is biting into her treat with her front teeth and makes Diana cringe, the other girl finally spots her, “hey!” She grins with a dab of ice cream on her chin, “pretty named girl.”  
  
Diana feels her face heat up and speaks quickly, “I could tune that for you.”

“Huh?” Akko looks around as if to find something else she was talking about, Diana blushes again at her own forwardness.

“I live on this street,” she says evenly, “and hear you a lot. A could tune your guitar for you.”  
  
Akko tilts her head to the side, “really?” She knits her brow together, “why? I mean hmm, can’t pay you much.” She searches the air, “oh!” She grins, “did you want ice cream? You could just ask.”  
  
She offers her some of the half-eaten food and Diana just shakes her head.

“I would just prefer to hear a tuned guitar. Nothing else.”  
  
Akko still seemed perplexed but she just nods, she pushes her instrument toward her.

“I guess I won’t say no to that,” she licks her ice cream, “but promise I’ll let you have some if you ask.” She elbows her, “you don’t have to be bashful or offer me stuff if you wanted some.”  
  
Diana resists rolling her eyes, “are you out here every day?” She changes the subject.

Akko scoots over to let Diana sit next to her on the fountain bench, “yeah.” She beams, “I’m practicing.”  
  
Diana nods and starts playing each string to try and get the right pitch, fiddling with the silver nobs. It was not high-end.

“Are you tuning that by ear?” Akko’s mouth was open, Diana just nods. “That’s so cool.” Diana can’t look up at her, she tunes the g-string.

Akko starts biting the ice cream cone, “I come out here everyday. The people are usually nice and maybe, maybe,” the ice cream drips down, “I’ll get discovered, ya know? That’s how Chariot did it.”  
  
“Chariot,” Diana fiddles with the headstock a little slower, “You really want to be Chariot?”  
  
Chariot DuNord, rockstar, pop sensation, performer extraordinaire, disappeared last summer according to the gossip magazines in a haze of drugs and washed up talent. She was a ‘has been’ and generally defamed by the paparazzi in those words.

Akko nods like a pez dispenser set on rapid fire, “were you a fan?”  
  
Diana just looks away, “everyone, everyone’s heard her music.”  
  
“I know!” Akko gushed, “she’s so beautiful and talented and inspiring, everything I want to be.” Akko rocked back and forth and threw her hands up. “That’s why I’m gonna practice out here every day until my fingers bleed!”

Diana sniffs and finishes tuning the final strings, “you might consider a new guitar.”  
  
Akko just shrugs, and wipes her sticky hands on her jeans, “rock stars start out in vans and pawnshop guitars. I’m not too worried.”  
  
Diana just shakes her head, “how…” she starts and then the words die in her throat, “doesn’t it bother you to have people pass you? To not even stop.”  
  
Akko looks up at the clear faded blue sky, then slowly back to Diana, “does that matter?” Diana chews that over for a minute.

  
Akko slaps her on the back with her sticky hand, “you’re alright Diana. Even if you kinda seemed like a music snob.”  
  
Diana actually rolls her eyes this time, “Classics take time and effort. They are the heart and truth of music.” She leans back on her elbows and gives a wry smile, “bop tunes last a minute. Mine are forever.”  
  
Akko snickers, “music snob. Right.”  
  
Diana puts her hands up, “It’s not my fault pop music is fluff for the masses.”  
  
Diana doesn’t have time to prepare for Akko to dip her hand in the fountain water, “fluff makes people happy, makes them smile,” Diana jumps when she feels a splash of cold water, “smile Diana!”

“Stop that right there!” Diana squirms away and Akko splashes her again.

“Chariot made people’s hearts soar! Come on,” she leans over her and Diana scowls, “laugh a little.”  
  
“I will push you in.”

Akko laughs and Diana flicks her with water until Akko jumps in the water with her boots on and creates a wave.

“I’m suing!” Diana’s whole front gets soaked.

Akko just laughs and Diana can’t help but start chuckling. She doesn’t answer her aunt’s call that night and smiles down at hr violins.

 

\-------------

 

Diana set a note in Akko’s usual spot the next day: ‘I’m sending my dry cleaning bill.’

She hides and listens to Akko laugh when she arrives that morning.

Diana takes out her old Chariot albums and listens to them back to back for the rest of the week.

 

\-----------

 

Diana started to say hi to Akko almost daily then, she had lunch outside on her usual bench and waved. Sometimes they even took a walk, sometimes Diana even sat her down and showed her some string techniques.

Akko started to send her little texts in the middle of the night.

‘Hope your night rocks’

And then a picture of a colored rock.

‘I bet your nightgown is super cute btw!!!’

‘Do you think trees know they’ll be big

Do you think they have tree thoughts :00000’

 

Things like that. Diana started to text back, tentatively, with pictures of the cat that lived outside her building and little snippets of music she was working on 

Akko spent hours later sending heart emojis to the music pieces, Diana buried her face in her pillow at her single one.

Diana started to tune Akko’s guitar weekly and Akko started to bring her ice creams and Chariot posters ‘just in case.’ Diana didn’t know what to do.

She was playing, but her fingers still felt dumb, so did her head. Diana was barely prepared for Akko to tap on her studio window when she was playing one Thursday afternoon in October.

She blinked at Akko standing outside in a leaf pile, Akko mouthed something at her.

“What’s that?” She goes to the door, “Akko, what are you doing here?”

  
“I heard you play here!” Akko was jumping up and down, “I knew you were good.”  
  
Diana feels her face heat up, “I practice.”  
  
Akko nodded in a hurry, “I knew I should have googled you earlier, you really are a big deal. The Diana Cavendish!”

Diana fluffs her hair, “It’s just a name.” She looks away, her thoughts fading into one another. “I’m nowhere near my mother yet. She was….she was the Cavendish name.”  
  
Akko looked at her softly, “It’s a nice name.” She says and then looks up and down the street, “I want to show you something."

Diana blinks, “what?”

“It’ll make you smile too,” Akko gives her a thumbs up and Diana sniffs.

“It’s fine. I don’t need anything.”

Akko shakes her head and then bites her lip, “I’ll be back. You better get ready Diana Cavendish!” Akko turned on her heel.  
  
“Where are you going?” Diana stepped toward her and Akko grabbed her sleeve before she bolted off.

“I have to finish it.”  
  
“What?” She blinked.  
  
Akko bounced on her heels, “a thank you.”  
  
Diana just shook her head but Akko was off. She had heard her play. Akko was making something.

\---

Diana didn’t know what to think by the time she saw Akko again, a day later and in a heavy sweat as she ran up to her house with that same goofy grin.

“What is it Akko?” It was 7:17 on a Friday night.

Akko was panting and holding up her guitar.

“I’ve come to show you! About pop music, “She says between puffs of air, “I just got it. Just now! It came to me.”  
  
Akko’s cheeks were glowing red from her run, Diana knits her brow together. “It’s kind of late.”  
  
Akko swings her guitar around her body and positions her fingers, “Just listen.”  
  
Diana raises her eyebrows but leans out of her door way. “Oh?”  
  
Akko takes a deep breath and started to play a surprisingly slow tune, “pretty-named girl in a sad blue dress.”  
  
“No no no no,” Diana waved her hand in the air, “I don’t need a song.”  
  
Akko raised her finger up and pressed one calloused pointer finger to her mouth, Diana’s heart thuds in her chest and she shuts up for a moment.

“Pretty-eyed girl on the street named nothing,” Akko kept singing, “she comes down to me in a vision of something, tune my words and tune my world, Diana, Dianaaaaaaa.”  
  
“Akko…” Her whole body was heating up.

“She says I’m a fool but maybe fools do it best, she says I’m a little off and I’m a little loose, but who says that’s not cute.

She says I’m singing for no one, but I could sing for her. Pretty-named girl in a quiet blue dress, going downtown and lighting up sets, Diana, Dianaaaaaa.”

“Akko, really. What, what?”  
  
Akko was beaming, “Her pretty hands play strings like magic, I’d like to play her the classics, I’d like to see her laughter. She says I’m fool, but I could be her fool, she says I’m a little off but I could be her switch. Diana, Dianaaaaa.”  
  
Diana wasn’t paying attention to the jumble of tunes and different verses, she was looking at Akko in the eye.

“Diana,” she takes a deep, “thanks for all your help!”

“I’m not good like I used to be.” She blurts out and Akko is shaking her head. "You don't have to... say those things."

“Do you need another song to make a point? Gosh.”  
  
Diana practically falls forward and grabs Akko by the shoulders, “I don’t have three pounds either.”  
  
“I take other things than change,” Akko says with a small smile.

“I don’t have any ice cream,” Diana’s heart was racing, “Akko I, Akko.”  
  
“Go on,” Akko says slowly, “I don’t need anything, if, if, you don’t want to give it.”  
  
Diana searches her face, she searches for something, “You are a fool.” she bends forward and the whole world goes very small and quiet.

Diana presses her mouth up against Akko, she small gasp and then melts into the sudden touch, she pushes her forward until it tastes sweet and like every nerve in her body would sing.

Her mind buzzes and goes blank with the lovely moment of crescendo shaking through her systems. Her lips are chapped and rough but Akko smiles into the kiss and wraps her further into her small warmth, Diana can feel her whole body vibrate.

She kissed the street artist on the corner.

They part very slowly and Akko touches her puffy lips, “I honestly didn’t think that would work.”

Diana smiles and tilts her chin up, “Well I mean, even if it was pop music.”  
  
Akko tucks a strand of Diana’s hair behind her ear, “You smiled, didn’t you?”  
  
She bows her head slightly, “maybe a little.”  
  
“Let’s make it a lot!”

  
She kisses her again.


End file.
